Spitz: When we run out of tobacco tax payers, then what?

As we roll into the last weekend before taxes are due, the last thing we want to hear about is how much more money our federal, state and local governments need.

By Julia Spitz/Daily News staff

MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, MA

By Julia Spitz/Daily News staff

Posted Apr. 12, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Apr 12, 2013 at 12:04 PM

By Julia Spitz/Daily News staff

Posted Apr. 12, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Apr 12, 2013 at 12:04 PM

» Social News

As we roll into the last weekend before taxes are due, the last thing we want to hear about is how much more money our federal, state and local governments need.

But because fiscal years start July 1, budget planning goes into overdrive just as we're getting a grasp on how much we pay already, a time when the thought of coming up with more feels as good as being whacked in the head with a sledgehammer.

Luckily for a lot of taxpayers, it looks like both the president and our state Legislature are banking heavily on smokers to again shoulder a lion's share of the load.

If both proposed hikes go through, and there's no reason they shouldn't since this has been a successful tactic at every turn, Massachusetts smokers will pay another $2 a pack for cigarettes.

Which health advocates tout as a very good thing because, they say, it stops people from smoking. In fact, a public service ad by the Massachusetts Tobacco Cessation and Prevention Program claims the $1 state increase will "prevent more than 27,000 young people from becoming addicted to tobacco.''

Officials on the federal level offer a similar scenario. And while I question how one can accurately predict future actions and their causes, I am sure of two things: If cigarettes were still 35 cents a pack, as they were when I was in junior high, we wouldn't have seen the dramatic cultural shift in young people's smoking habits of recent years; and absolutely no one would wish a lifetime of smoking addiction on anyone, particularly a young person.

So there's not a lot of moral ground to stand on when trying to lobby against raising cigarette taxes yet again. Smokers are the one group it's politically correct to demonize and penalize.

The problem, as has been pointed out by many voices of reason, is no matter how you feel about the fairness of relentlessly targeting smokers for tax hikes, it's a poor business model akin to planning to fund your retirement by selling your vast collection of VCR tapes.

If the justification for continually raising tobacco taxes is to get people to quit or never start, either the government will have to borrow tobacco companies' marketing playbooks from the '60s and '70s and covertly get a new generation hooked, or come up with another revenue source.

For now, in the shortest of short terms, a double-dose tobacco tax is the path of least resistance.

Frankly, I'm surprised municipalities haven't found a way to slap their own taxes on cigarettes.

But at some point, lawmakers will have to come up with Plan B.

Perhaps the best place to start would be with simpler and fairer income tax codes.

Page 2 of 2 -
Julia Spitz can be reached at 508-626-3968 or jspitz@wickedlocal.com. Follow tweets at twitter.com/SpitzJ_MW.